ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Microbiota and Cancer Immunity, organized
by Drs. Giorgio Trinchieri, Jenny P.Y. Ting and Hsing-Jien Kung. The conference will be held in Taipei, Taiwan
from March 17-20, 2024.
The concept of inflammation being linked to tumor promotion or tumor microenvironment initiation has evolved
to include a complex network of interactions: innate and acquired immune response to the tumor; metabolism in
tumor and immune cells; local and systemic effects of the microbiota on tumor predisposition, promotion,
response to therapies; and finally, cancer co-morbidities and therapeutic side effects. The metabolic tumor
environment affects the activity and metabolism of immune cells, which modulates tumor progression and the
response to therapies, including immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Innate signaling also affects
the tumor microenvironment, and complex crosstalk involving innate receptors, trained immunity, and class I
Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) regulates both inflammation and anti-tumor immunity. Further,
advances in experimental animals, and more recently, in cancer patients, are unraveling the complex interactions
between the microbiota at epithelial surfaces and within the primary tumor and metastatic sites with response to
therapy; these insights raise the possibility of predicting patient responses to various therapies and to target
microbiota for improving therapy responses, decreasing toxicity and preventing co-morbidity. These new
scientific areas featured in this conference program will bring together aspects of cancer biology and immunity
that are often only discussed at separate specialized meetings and will expose the audience of basic and clinical
investigators to these new concepts. The conference will also explore the clinical translation of these rapidly
emerging insights in cancer immunobiology, which will include a workshop entitled Effects of Race and Ethnicity
on Microbiome: Impacts on Cancer Health Disparities that will focus attention on health equity topics related to
cancer and therapeutic responses among ethnically distinct and/or disadvantaged populations.